Baby steps: I finished copyediting my grad school's newsletter today, and browsed CogSci 2012's proceedings so that I can get ideas for this year. Trying to decide between the 150-word member abstract [poster presentation by default] or the 6-page short paper [oral or poster, refereed]. They're due Feb. 1st. I'd love to have an oral presentation, but damn, this 2x oral surgery business has eaten all my energy and brain.

I'm waiting impatiently for the new office desktop. The ones they give out to new students are pretty terrible; it just isn't powerful enough to do the image analysis I need to do. So basically I'm stuck until the tech guy gets it put together, other than getting caught up on literature. But delays keep cropping up, which is frustrating.

Baby steps: I finished copyediting my grad school's newsletter today, and browsed CogSci 2012's proceedings so that I can get ideas for this year. Trying to decide between the 150-word member abstract [poster presentation by default] or the 6-page short paper [oral or poster, refereed]. They're due Feb. 1st. I'd love to have an oral presentation, but damn, this 2x oral surgery business has eaten all my energy and brain.

So I'm not in grad school, but as I could possibly be finishing my undergrad degree the end of next year depending on class availability, this is probably something I should start thinking about. So I hope it's okay if I ask you guys some questions?

For those of you that went straight into grad school after undergrad wish you'd taken some time in between? And for those of you who waited a bit before going to grad school, do you wish you'd just gone straight into it after undergrad?

I'm not really sure what I want to do (waiting or going right away), so it'd be nice to get some opinions if you guys don't mind :)

I waited, and I'm glad. I'd strongly recommend waiting if you're going for something like a PhD in the humanities, because the burnout factor is big. One of my friends (in a small cohort of 12) is now leaving our program, and she attributes this largely to not having taken a break between undergrad and grad. I can't really speak to other fields (I imagine it's different).

I waited, and I'm glad. I'd strongly recommend waiting if you're going for something like a PhD in the humanities, because the burnout factor is big. One of my friends (in a small cohort of 12) is now leaving our program, and she attributes this largely to not having taken a break between undergrad and grad. I can't really speak to other fields (I imagine it's different).

I agree with this. Taking some time off will give you an opportunity to clear your head and examine your reasons for wanting to go pursue a graduate degree; it may also result in stronger applications since you won't be trying to balance them with current academic obligations. My own experience is the best and worst example of this approach, depending on how you want to do it. I left my undergrad program when I became pregnant with my first child and went back to finish years later, and then did a two-year MA in English as a sort of "acid test" to see if I wanted to do a PhD (my feeling was that if after finishing a 140 page thesis I still wanted to be engaged in such an enterprise, I'd go for it; if not, I'd do Something Completely Different). In the event I decided I did want to apply to programs, but I took a year off to get my head on straight, put serious effort into the application process, and mentally prepare for The Next Big Thing. I'm now in the second year of my doctoral program, finished with coursework and prepping for exams. It's a lot of hard work, but I really feel that taking the time to examine my reasons for wanting to do it and thinking about what I hoped to get from it helped me go into the PhD feeling certain it's the right choice. Just my two cents; best of luck with whatever you decide!

I'm just doing one topic at a time, hopefully it's doable! I just started a new job and my new boss studies too, so she's super understanding if I need to take time off.

That's great! I've been working at the university for about 8 months now so I'm surrounded by people who 'get' studying. My colleagues and boss are really supportive.

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The upside to doing everything online is being able to listen to my lectures in my pyjamas while eating cake, but the downside is potentially ending up kind of unmotivated.

I feel you. Plus when listening to lectures in my pyjamas I often get side-tracked by ALL THE PRETTY THINGS on the internet.

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I also just accepted some more volunteer work, coordinating the e-gender bulletins for IWDA. I'm really hoping that this is a smart move that will keep me on top of gender and development issues, rather than something I'm going to curse myself for in a few weeks' time.

Oh yay I'm glad someone awesome is doing this! I follow them on twitter and was this close to applying for the e-gender volunteer role but somehow I thought "I'll put together an application after Christmas"...then, you know, holidays...and I forgot. Hope it's going well!

Add me to the chorus of people who have found it worthwhile to wait. My interests have evolved over time and I'm glad I gave myself time to explore them before committing to further academic work. From a financial point of view it's been somewhat easier as well, as I managed to save a lot of my tuition fees for this time round.

I took 2 years off between my BA and MA. Best 2 years ever. The only regret I have is that I didn't get a full year 2 to intern at the Interacting Minds Lab/CFIN @ AU.dk to learn neuroscience and other experimental techniques. Because I was accepted to a ph.d. programme "early" I had to finish my 2d year in a semester (!!) and missed out on cool internship opportunities.

Speaking of Ph.D. stuff, I just made my 'going back to work to-do list'. It's 20 items long, and each item has about 4 sub-items of stuff that needs doing. That's a lot of stuff.

Oh yay I'm glad someone awesome is doing this! I follow them on twitter and was this close to applying for the e-gender volunteer role but somehow I thought "I'll put together an application after Christmas"...then, you know, holidays...and I forgot. Hope it's going well!

Haha, that's awesome! They ended up getting a ton of applications so they've recruited three volunteers for the year instead of the two that they'd planned on. So I'll be doing it until the start of May, and then someone else will take over. Everyone there is super nice and it's really interesting, so you should definitely get involved next year or whenever they need volunteers again.

Decided to submit the super short member abstract to CogSci instead of the 6-page long regular submission. Stoked that that means pretty much instant acceptance and that I could be spending a university-sponsored week in Berlin in August. Also, s l o w l y making annotation progress. I have so little to do, and yet, it's so tedious that it takes f o r e v e r.

I just learned the date and time of my oral comprehensive exam: May 14th, 10:00am-12:00pm. Suddenly I feel like shiitake just got real and more than a little terrified; please start praying/casting spells/sacrificing vegetables for me right now.

Thanks guys! It seems like waiting a year or so would be a good idea. I'm a Biology major with a focus on conservation, ecology and evolution, and I'd be wanting to get my master's. I was looking at some internships posted on the department website and there are some ones I'm super interested in, but all of them save for a few require a bachelor's degree. I've been thinking about taking a year or so off to due one of the internships once I graduate, and it seems like that may be the best option. I feel like I would definitely get burn out going straight into grad school, so that break would be good for me.

I just learned the date and time of my oral comprehensive exam: May 14th, 10:00am-12:00pm. Suddenly I feel like shiitake just got real and more than a little terrified; please start praying/casting spells/sacrificing vegetables for me right now.

I just learned the date and time of my oral comprehensive exam: May 14th, 10:00am-12:00pm. Suddenly I feel like shiitake just got real and more than a little terrified; please start praying/casting spells/sacrificing vegetables for me right now.

My semester has started again and I already have a shiitake ton of work to do! This semester I am experimenting with logging the hours that I spend on various classes. My theory is that this may keep me more on task. So far so good... I've been logging at least 1 hour for my most difficult class every day and multiple hours most days.

Also, Desdemona, I will definitely sacrifice some carrots and onions for you! You are going to rock that though.

So awesome; I actually know the blogger, Brantley Bryant, slightly (my partner is a medievalist, and although I'm an early modernist, I'm medieval-friendly/curious!). The MLA one is probably my favorite.

I'm such a dumb asparagus. I was so focused on making progress on this huge project for my hardest class that I failed to notice that a new homework assignment had been posted which the professor expected would take us 6 days to do. I finally noticed it yesterday, about 40 hours before it was due. Of those 40 hours, I've had oh, about 10 free, including the last 8, and that is what I spent on this assignment.

So yeah, I've pulled my first all-nighter of the new semester. Yaaaay grad school.